Blue1 Ltd (Finnish: Blue1 Oy)^[1] is a Finnish airline owned by SAS Group, with a hub at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport. Blue1 flies to around 20 destinations in Finland, Scandinavia and rest of Europe. It carried over 1.4 million passengers in 2009.^[2] The airline is a member of Star Alliance and has its head office is in Vantaa.^[3][4][5]

History

The airline was established in 1987 and started operations in 1988 as Air Botnia, flying Embraer EMB-110 Bandeirantes on night cargo flights and on passenger services from Helsinki to Kaunajoki and Seinäjoki.^[6] It started to supplement its unpressurised Bandeirantes with leased British Aerospace Jetstream 31s in 1993, but cash flow problems in the summer of 1995 caused British Aerospace to repossess the Jetstreams and brought Air Botnia to the point of bankruptcy, with last minute negotiations needed to save the airline, which continued operations in a reduced scale.^[7]

The airline was purchased by SAS Group in January 1998, with the new owners re-equipping the airline, replacing its Jetstreams with Saab 340s later that year, and receiving its first jets, Fokker F28 Fellowships in 1999. The elderly F28s were soon replaced as their high noise levels restricted operations, with Avro RJ85s being received in 2001, with its Saab 340s being replaced by larger Saab 2000s at the same time.^[8]

Air Botnia was renamed Blue1 in January 2004,^[9] and the airline joined Star Alliance as the first regional member on November 3 the same year.

In 2005 Blue1 became the second largest Finnish airline with more than 100 daily flights and biggest operator between Finland and Scandinavia.

In 2006 Blue1 started 10 new nonstop routes to Europe increasing its total capacity by more than 50%.

In 2008 Blue1 moved its London operations from Stansted to Heathrow Airport, and undertook strong expansion on domestic business routes. In 2009 new routes to Lapland, including Paris-Kittilä were opened for the winter season and routes to Biarritz, Dubrovnik and Split for summer travel.

January 1, 2010 Blue1 became a full member of Star Alliance.

Blue1 was the first network airline in Northern Europe to be granted ISO 14001 environmental certificate.^[10]

Destinations

Codeshare agreements

Blue1 has codeshare agreements with the following Star Alliance airlines as of October 2010.

Fleet

Current fleet

As of August 2011, the Blue1 fleet consists of the following aircraft, with an average age of 11.7 years:^[11]

The company is in the process of replacing its old fleet consisting of Avro RJ85 and MD-90 planes with second-hand Boeing 717s, more adapted to Finnish regional traffic.,^[12] the first of which was delivered in August 2010. The MD-90s have been phased out, with the Avro RJ85s following in due course.^[13] On 28 May 2010, the company has announced it intends to double the size of its fleet over "the next couple of years".^[14]

Retired fleet

Onboard services

Blue1 offers two service classes, Economy and Premium, featuring all business class services at a significantly lower fare.^[15]

• Economy Class: Coffee and tea are included on all Blue1 operated flights. Sandwiches and other drinks are available for purchase from "Cafe1".^[16] Flights with very short flight time may have reduced service.
• Blue1 Premium: Fast Track security and Business Class check-in is included where available. A cold meal is served on flights to Finnish domestic and Scandinavian destinations, whereas a hot meal is included when traveling to destinations in Continental Europe.

When flying Blue1 Premium Class, lounge access is automatically included when traveling to or from Continental Europe, but not on domestic flights or flights to or from Scandinavia (apart from some higher booking classes, that always include lounge service).

References

• Pagiola, Stefano. "Stars In Their Eyes: Finland's Blue 1 Regional Airline". Air International, Vol 67 No 4. pp. 4245.

External links

Media related to Blue1 at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website